Arda Collins wins 2008 Yale Younger Poet Award

As Possum put it in her alert to me, "this is a damn big deal." The award from the Yale Series of Younger Poets is the oldest literary award in the United States. It crowns the best entry among poets under 40 who have not published a book of poetry. Past winners include James Agee, Adrienne Rich, James Wright, W. S. Merwin, John Ashbery, James Tate, John Hollander, Robert Hass, Carolyn Forche, and famously, not Sylvia Plath. Arda's book, to be published by Yale University press, is called It Is Daylight. Our classmate Arda is an editor at Gut Cult, and her poetry was selected for the prize this year by Louis Glück. Huge congratulations to Arda!